Legions of Tears
Summary The "Legions of Tears" is the name given to the Imperial Guard regiments raised from the planet Peace, the home world of the Revenants Chapter Astartes. This name is given to these soldiers due to Peace's culture of despising both the necessity for war and making it. Since they cannot refuse the tithe of men, they mourn the need to send them. Nonetheless, despite hating the need for war, the Legions of Tears have made a good account of themselves. Essential Information Name: The Legions of Tears World of Origin: Peace. Notable Regiments: 1st, 85th. Motto: "Fight for Peace, Mourn for War". History The Legions were founded when the planet Peace was first brought into the Imperium. The name "Legions of Tears" comes, so the legends say, from the sorrow those who went to war had: one Remembrancer is reported as writing "the families who stayed behind shed legions of tears, that marched alongside the men of Peace, as though each tear were a soldier itself on the march". From this, the name was coined. The Legions have historically made a satisfactory but ultimately not particularly noteworthy impact in Imperial military terms. It is perhaps this lacklustre impact that drew the attention of the Imperium enough to warrant sending a Chapter from the Founding of the 39th Millennium to the planet. However, as is now common knowledge, that attempt backfired, leading to the equally pacifistic in temperament Revenants Chapter. Since then, the Legions of Tears have continued to serve with unenthusiastic proficiency, if not exactly proficiency. They are competent, reliable soldiers who can always be expected to do their duty. Battle Doctrine Like most military organisations from Peace, the soldiers of the Legions of Tears follow the Doctrine of Peace which, though later modified to be the Revenants' Doctrine, was nonetheless used - in an unrefined form - for the Legions. The Legions are based on traditional flak armour, patterned on the forces of Cadia. Their combat tactics are varied, depending on regiment and mission, with many regiments being purely infantry sloggers, many mechanised infantry, but mostly a mix of the two. Commissariat Attitude Most Commissars not from Peace take a dim view to the Doctrine of Peace and to the men of the Legions. These Commissars tend to be rotated out swiftly, replaced by home grown Commissars who understand the people of Peace and their ideals. These Commissars still have the unfortunate duty of executing cowardly men, but at least they do not execute men for following the culture of their home world, as occasionally happens with non-indigenous Commissars. Notable Regiments 1st Legion The 1st Legion of Tears is of especial note among the various Legions: it consists of twelve companies of Imperial Guard Infantry, each six platoons large with support vehicles and assigned armour, and has the unique honour of supplementing the PDF of the planet Peace, specifically the Paxus Maxima, the Capital Plaza of Peace's capital city. The Regiment's battle honours prior to this were notable for a Peace regiment, which is what earned them both the honour of being the 1st Legion (formerly they were the 75th, the original 1st having been wiped out many centuries ago) and the honour of guarding the Paxus. 85th Legion The 85th Legion consists of ten companies of six platoons plus support vehicles and armour. Although it's battle honours up until recently were mediocre at best, it earned distinction for itself when it accompanied the Revenants' Second and Fourth Companies to the Sanctatum sector to fight the a chaos invasion there. Though they suffered a full 50% casualty rate, losing more than three full companies, they nonetheless managed to survive and their contribution aided an Imperial Victory in the sector.